Readers' "amazing generosity" in supporting the Giving Tree Appeal

Fred the Shed and Santa visted the Dingley Centre in Reading to hand out Giving Tree presents

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Delighted youngsters received Christmas presents they would otherwise have gone without – thanks to the generosity of our readers.

The Giving Tree Appeal meant almost 2,000 disadvantaged children in Reading borough, 1,500 in Wokingham borough and several hundred more in Bracknell Forest got a Christmas gift as thousands of people took tags from Giving Trees in shops, shopping centres and workplaces and returned with the presents requested.

Clare Wright from Connect Reading, who organises the appeal in the town, along with the Reading Post and Broad Street Mall, said the generosity shown was ‘amazing’, while Gill McKernan from Barnardo’s High Close School, who organises the appeal in Wokingham and Bracknell Forest areas in conjunction with our sister papers The Wokingham Times and The Bracknell Times, said generosity in Wokingham had broken records.

She said: “It has been an absolute bumper year. The generosity of the people of Wokingham is overwhelming.”

Dingley Family Centre off Kenavon Drive, one of the recipient charities in Reading, changed its approach this year by stating the kinds of things its children were interested in, rather than requesting specific gifts.

Centre manager Louise Farmer said: “Some people buying presents like to be able to choose sometimes as long as they have got something to go on.”

A total of 39 presents were handed to the centre’s pre-school special needs children on Wednesday last week at the charity’s Christmas party.

The youngsters enjoyed singing, entertainment from Fred in the Shed, food and then a visit from Santa when they were given the toys from The Giving Tree Appeal.

Santa, along with a couple of elves from among the staff, were the highlight of the big day.

Miss Farmer said: “They all enjoyed receiving their presents. Some of their faces were amazing.”

The annual drive was launched on November 23 and is organised by the Broad Street Mall, Connect Reading and the Reading Post.